very powerful figure in southern afghanistan and a very controversial one. he's the head of the provincial council, which on its own would make him the man controlling the area. both because of his connections to the president and a lot of associations -- he made things happen in kandahar province, which is the real former stronghold of the taliban. he has a lot of enemies, both among the insurgency and also among the various criminal networks that work in that area. he himself has been accused of drug ties, criminal ties, and even of being on the payroll of the cia. all things that ahmad wali karzai denies. he has a very murky reputation. it's hard to know, even though the taliban claims responsibility, what happened and who is behind it. host: how does the u.s. view him? guest: the u.s. has most recently seen him as an unsolvable problem. he has been a friend to the u.s. for a long time. because he has been someone who has been hard to bring on board with some of the programs to develop the province, to work with the military -- no one says this directly,